French Open 2025: Coco Gauff advances to quarterfinals, Jessica Pegula falls in tough match vs. Lois Boisson
Prior to Monday, it looked like American women could dominate at the 2025 French Open. Coco Gauff took care of her business early, advancing to the quarterfinals. Jessica Pegula, however, could not get the job done, ensuring just two American women will make the final eight.
Gauff, who came into the event as the No. 2 ranked woman, took down No. 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets Monday. Gauff kept Ekaterina off the board entirely in the first set, blanking the Russian 6-0. Ekaterina threatened to take the second set, but Gauff was able to fend her off, winning the set 7-5.
While Gauff has faced challenges at the French Open, she has yet to play a third set in her four matches. She's dispatched opponents in straight sets each time out, though that could change as the field whittles down.
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The win pushes Gauff to the French Open quarterfinals for the fifth time in her career. Of the four Grand Slams, Gauff has been most successful at the French Open. She finished as a quarterfinalist in both 2021 and 2023, made the semifinals in 2024 and finished as a finalist in 2022. Despite that success, Gauff has never won the event.
If Gauff is going to accomplish that feat in 2025, she'll need to take down a fellow American in the quarterfinals. Gauff will play the winner of Madison Keys and Hailey Baptiste in the next round. The two Americans face off Monday, with the winner moving on to play Gauff.
Jessica Pegula couldn't move past Lois Boisson at the 2025 French Open. (Photo by Frey/TPN/Getty Images)
(Frey/TPN via Getty Images)
Jessica Pegula falls at 2025 French Open
Jessica Pegula looked strong early, but couldn't capitalize against France's own Lois Boisson in the fourth round of the French Open on Monday.
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Things started well for Pegula, who took down Boisson 6-3 in the first set. Pegula stumbled in the second set, however. After trading off games with Boisson early, Pegula struggled late in the set, falling 6-4 to set up a third set.
Boisson looked strong early, taking the first two games. Pegula fought back to take the third game. Pegula eventually pulled ahead before both women started to trade off games. Boisson was able to push her lead to 5-4. With the match on the line, Pegula refused to go out easily. With the game tied 40-40, Boisson and Pegula traded off points. One player would get the advantage only to give it up immediately. After a lengthy back-and-forth, Boisson came out on top, taking the final set 6-4 and winning the match.
With the loss, Pegula becomes the highest-seeded woman to fall so far. For Boisson — who came into the event ranked No. 361 — it marks the biggest victory of her career.
The French Open hasn't been Pegula's best tournament. She's reached the quarterfinals just once, when she fell to Iga Swiatek in the round in 2022.
Swiatek is among the non-American women left at the event. She's joined by women's No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Qinwen Zheng, Elina Svitolina and Boisson. Those six, along with Gauff and the winner of Keys and Baptiste will make up the quarterfinals at the 2025 French Open.
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an hour ago
Cyprus' lyrical duelists spit fierce rhymes as they battle it out to the licks of a fiddle
LARNACA, Cyprus -- Lyrical duelists in Cyprus spit rhymes in head-to-head contests, keeping alive a tradition known as 'tsiattista' that emerged centuries before the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Konstantinos Christou Grilias and Adamos Peratikos are among a new group of poets in this Mediterranean country who battle it out live on stage to the rhythms of the lute and fiddle. The battles are fierce, but you won't find any Kendrick-Drake style beef. Tsiattista made UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011. The similarities with American hip-hop diss songs and battle rap are many: two duelists using their wits and turns of phrase to boast how superior they are, giving opponents a schooling in an onslaught of lyrical beatdowns. It's complete with assertive gestures and the hands-behind-the-back patience of the poet waiting to pounce. 'Even if you'd been a paramedic, I'd send you to hospital with a heart attack,' Peratikos told one adversary — a line with more snap in the Cypriot Greek dialect, whose syntax is akin to ancient Greek. Grilias dissed his opponent as a lightweight and a laughingstock. The audience of hundreds along a seaside promenade murmured in approval. Tsiattista battles which have been around since at least the end of the 19th century, are undergoing a bit of a revival, thanks to performers like Grilias and Peratikos. 'We urge other kids who like it to come along to safeguard this institution,' said Peratikos, 41. 'The goal isn't about awards, the goal is to keep tradition alive.' The 44-year-old Grilias said he's never really delved into the world of Kendrick Lamar or Jay-Z. 'Honestly, I've never listened to rappers. They told me that they battle in their own language, in their own way,' Grilias said as he prepared for a tsiattista duel at the peak of a festival for the Orthodox Christian Pentecost. 'Rappers don't know where Cyprus is," he added. The new group of performers, known as tsiattistaes, started to replace the older generation about 15 years ago at the premier competition in Larnaca during the annual Pentecost festival known as Kataklysmos, said ethnomusicologist Nicoletta Demetriou, who is director of the island nation's Music Archive. The new generation includes women, though few participate because of lingering social exclusion, Demetriou said. The current tsiattista format of a two-verse rhyme with a total of 15 syllables was developed in the late 18th to early 19th century, evolving from the introduction of the rhyming verse to the Greek-speaking world in the 15th and 16th centuries, Demetriou said. It draws on a tradition of poets matching wits from the times of Pericles in ancient Greece. The structure and musical accompaniment are simple, so that the rhymes are clear and understandable for both the audience and the adversary. Contests can address a range of themes, but the underlying premise is to determine who's the best at the diss. 'It's usually a fight, meaning 'I'd clobber you, kill you, bury you,' Grilias said. 'But I believe the public likes more a bit of humor, too.' For contestants, it's about who shows up ready, can stay cool and make the fewest mistakes in front of a crowd. 'Truth is, you're stressed, you're under pressure," Grilias said, and 'the person who can best handle this has the advantage.' One useful strategy is guessing how to get into your opponent's way of thinking, predicting possible responses to your lines, Peratikos said. He dismissed AI technology as incapable of coming up with effective rhymes in the Cypriot Greek dialect. 'There are words that we've heard but we don't even know, so there's no way artificial intelligence does,' Peratikos said. At the end of a long night of battling, Grilias and Peratikos finished fourth and fifth, respectively. A judging panel composed of men and women determined the winners. The two contestants took their places in stride. 'We're all friends, that's what's important,' Grilias said.


Indianapolis Star
an hour ago
- Indianapolis Star
Will Buxton 1 on 1: Formula 1 regret leads to exploring America through calling IndyCar races
A onetime writer and lifelong devotee of Formula 1 who grew up in the United Kingdom, Will Buxton makes his living these days broadcasting IndyCar races on American television. Tabbed as the lead announcer for Fox Sports' inaugural season alongside analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe, the excitable and gregarious 44-year-old has immersed himself in the history, prepared tirelessly and learned on the fly. Buxton, who had been to only three tracks on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule before taking the role, will reach the halfway point of his 17-race rookie season during the June 20-22 XPEL Grand Prix at Elkhart Lake's Road America. In a half-hour conversation with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Buxton talked about growing into the job, criticism, regrets, the season, the tracks — in particular the rural Wisconsin road course that comes next — and what he's trying to accomplish both on the Fox broadcasts and away from the booth. Here are highlights. Question: As the series hits the midpoint this weekend, how is your comfort level? Answer: I don't think you could ever be entirely comfortable doing play by play, I don't think you ever should be entirely comfortable doing play by play. There's always nerves. There's always massive tension. That expectation of the unknown is part of the allure. It's part of what keeps you coming back. We take what we do very, very seriously. We have a lot of fun doing it, but we all go into it with a huge amount of nerves every single broadcast, because you care. Can you characterize how your confidence level or however you want to describe it compares to before the season started? I wouldn't call it confidence. I think it's more comfort in terms of being more engrained with the championship, building more relationships, feeling more established and OK, we're not even half a season in, but that's the way the IndyCar Series is. It's incredibly open-armed and welcoming, and to have felt that has really aided my learning process and my ability, hopefully, to be able to bring out these characters and these stories and get people immersed in the wonder of IndyCar. Have you spent much time studying the broadcasts or does it pretty much need to be full steam ahead at this point yet? As difficult as it is and as horrible as it is to have to listen back to your own voice, yeah, every, every race, every week, every session, we all watch them back individually. We make notes, we bring them to bear at production meetings or private meetings and personal meetings that we have with the production crew, because we're always looking for ways that we can improve. And I think if we take the (St. Petersburg, Florida, season opener) and compare it to the St Louis race, (it's) a completely different broadcast, I think, a completely different sound, a very different look. And that goes not just for me, but for every member of the team. We have a brilliant director in Mitch Riggin who had never directed a single lap of racing, of auto racing, until we got to St. Pete. We have a diverse crew who have been involved in multiple sports, some of them in racing, some of them not in racing over their careers, and they've all been brought together to try to bring something fresh and something different to IndyCar. There's always things we can learn from (what) the fans are saying and the feedback that the fans are bringing to us. I think one of the most noticeable parts of that has been the pylon on the left-hand side of the screen that denotes who is where and what stage of the race they're in, what tires they might be running. That has changed every single race and I think that really exemplifies the constant desire to grow and to learn and to improve. Insider: Rising IndyCar star David Malukas knows 'I need to mature' on track, 'switch off' Team Penske rumors What you say is instantly out there forever. Are there a couple of things you said that you'd like to have back? About 98% of it. That's the addiction. That's what brings you back every time. You know there is no such thing as a perfect broadcast, there never will be, and the day that anybody achieves that, that's the day you quit, because it's never going to get any better. I started out in print. And I loved having the time to be able to craft and edit and amend and then get your article to a place where you are so happy with it, and then you send it in, and your editor ruins it. So to sort of be unedited is both freeing and also terrifying. You can try to polish it too much, and you can try to make it too perfect, but then it doesn't sound real, and you're not reacting in the moment. And the one thing that we want to do with this broadcast, and the one thing that we as a booth want to do, with myself and Townsend and James, is make the folks at home feel like they're sitting on the couch with us and that our reactions are their reactions and anytime something big happens, it's almost like you're jumping over the couch at them and putting your arm around the viewer and be like, 'Come on, my god, look at this, this is crazy,' and bring them in for the ride. Even the great calls, the legendary calls that go down in history and that we have, that resonate in our minds forever, the announcers who made those calls, they will still look at it and think, timing was a bit off, could have used a different word there. Insider: Why IndyCar's 1 million viewers on Sunday night is good ... but not as good as it looks How do you deal with critics? Anyone who likes to jump on social media and tell me that they don't think I'm good enough, trust me, that thought goes through my mind daily. You should always strive to be better and strive to improve. I find social media a challenge. There's been a very clear shift over the past decade from where it was as a place of community and interaction and trying to share joy and positivity to something that is now inherently negative and can be quite painfully toxic. And I find that a real sadness, because what it has done is it has made me intentionally kind of draw back from the interaction that I used to enjoy so much, and that interaction was all about bringing fans closer to the sport, but it's so difficult not to be affected by the tidal wave of negativity that I have kind of had to take a step back. But I do occasionally go on, and I do occasionally search my own name and have a bit of a giggle at some of the hideous stuff that is written, because you can't take it seriously. There's a great mantra out there, which is don't take criticism from people you wouldn't take advice from, and that's a good one to go along with. 'It's terrifying': Meet Will Buxton, next voice of IndyCar. (He's never attended an Indy 500.) I imagine Indianapolis was an outsized portion of your early preparation. How has the work or the focus changed since May? Actually, I've dedicated I'd say probably equal time to every race and to the championship and the history as a whole. Growing up in Europe, Formula 1 was the sport that I watched the most, and so a lot of its history and its major moments were things that just sort of seeped their way into my subconscious through osmosis. IndyCar is a championship I've always loved, but it wasn't as readily available in the European market as it was in the American market. And so the history and that side of the knowledge base that I need to have, I have had to work at that, and I will always have to work at that in order to get myself to that same place. The 500 was really interesting for me, and I did spend, obviously, quite a bit of time going into the history of it. The 500 is 110 years of history. You just have to do that much more to be that more aware of everything that has gone on there. But with every race weekend, I think you know, the first part for me is learning the recent history, certainly learning the history of the current drivers and what they've achieved on that track and how they might fare there. You've been to some of the tracks on the schedule, but not all, right? Pretty much every track for me is a new experience. I'd done the Milwaukee Mile (as a pit reporter). I'd been to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to do qualifying, but never the 500. I've been to Road America, that we're going to this week, but only as a guest of (racer-turned-broadcaster and fellow Englishman) David Hobbs when we were colleagues back in the NBC and Speed Channel days (of Formula 1 coverage in the United States), because he has a house out at Elkhart Lake. So been there, been to Siebkens (a famous local hotel/restaurant/bar with a long reputation among racers). Just once. Barber (Motorsports Park), for me, absolutely blew my mind. It was like an amalgamation of some of the most beautiful European racing circuits that I've ever visited. Going and doing a race under the lights on a short course oval like we did at (World Wide Technology Raceway outside) St. Louis was absolutely incredible. I'd been to Belle Isle before, so I've been to Detroit, but I'd never done the Detroit street race before, so it's lovely What I'm discovering is, and what I love about this year, is for my entire professional life, I've been used to traveling the world and experiencing different countries and different cultures. And I think it's true what people say about America, that every state and every city within those states you know, is almost like visiting a different country. … I'm loving that kind of cultural discovery of America. What were your impressions of the actual racetrack in your time at Road America? Hobbo actually took me out in a road car at Road America. And yeah, it's a tough track. The drivers all recognize it as a very, very tricky circuit. One of the ones they enjoy the most, obviously, is a circuit steeped in history, and one that you love to see still being on the calendar, because it's one of those ones that really means something to people. But I loved it. I loved driving around. I loved visiting Siebkens and the historical aspect of it. And I think that's what's so wonderful about this championship, going to your classic racetracks like your Laguna Secas and Long Beach and obviously Indianapolis and Road America and places like that, and then also discovering circuits that have only been on the calendar for a decade or less. We've got Arlington coming onto the calendar next year as a brand new race. I actually really enjoyed Thermal, and I know it gets bad press but I enjoyed the facility. I enjoyed the race. Because, again, I come from the world of Formula 1. We had drivers fighting their way up through the field. Will Power had an amazing race that day, and then we had a guy who had sat in third place for most of the race, came out 11 seconds behind the leader, and over the course of the next 10 laps, battled past the two dominant cars of the weekend and pulled off into the distance to win. That in Formula 1 terms is a generational race, but in IndyCar terms was seen to be somewhat below par, and that really taught me a very early lesson about what the expectations are in this championship for an exciting race. As the series has moved from place to place to place, have you had the opportunity to take in the surroundings, or has it been mostly hotel, booth and back? One of the big regrets of my 25 years in Formula 1 was that I don't think I took as many opportunities as I should have done to go out and explore and experience some of the amazing places that I got to visit. I went to China I want to say 12, 13, 14 times (covering Formula 1 as a journalist or broadcast host). I've never seen the Great Wall other than flying over it. Admittedly, the race was nowhere near it, but you'd think you'd probably try and take some time. We went to India a couple of times. I never got to the Taj Mahal. Those things, they're regrets, because you don't get to travel to those places all the time, and when you're traveling there for work, I probably should have taken a couple of days and got out and seen some of the great wonders of the world. I am trying to go and see everything I can. When we went to Barber, I made a point on my first day there, because I had about a half a day where I knew I wasn't needed to do anything, I went and explored the history of Birmingham, the civil rights movement, which is still very recent history of America ... and how important that is, not just to the history of this country, but to the present and the future of this country. And I'm trying to do that everywhere I go. I'm trying to take in the city, the area, the history, together, a fuller context of not just where I am in the moment and that city, but the country, which is one that I love. I've broadcast in America for such a long time, be it with Formula 1 or now with IndyCar, and I feel immensely privileged to be able to do so, but I don't think that you can properly broadcast to a nation unless you fully understand its history and its complex history and what makes the people and what makes the country what it is. So I'm trying to do that everywhere I go. 'Blown out of proportion': Nolan Siegel's radio rant no biggie for Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin After a wild night at World Wide Raceway, what are you looking for this weekend? St. Louis looked like it was going to be a Chevy weekend, and especially like it was going to be a Penske weekend. (Josef) Newgarden looked phenomenal. Obviously, (Will) Power took the pole. And then in the race itself, (Conor) Daly was so impressive. (Christian) Rasmussen was unbelievable. (Pato) O'Ward was in the hunt the entire night. And yet, here we are with not just another Honda win, but another Kyle Kirkwood win. And I think people have been sleeping on Kyle Kirkwood for too long. … And now he's emerged as the guy most likely to challenge Alex (Palou) for the title in 2025 and it's a wonderful story, and it's one I can't wait to tell. But can Penske find a way back? They're having an absolutely horrible season, and everything that could go wrong seems to be going wrong for them. So that's a fascinating narrative, and there are just so many young drivers looking for their breakthrough moment. (David) Malukas has been so impressive over the last few races, and I brought up Rasmussen, he's been mega as well, sixth at the Indy 500, third last time out in St. Louis. A wonderful breakthrough performance for PREMA Racing as well, with (Robert) Shwartzman finishing in the top 10 for them for the first time. There are so many great stories in the NTT IndyCar Series, and that's one of the things that brought me over from F1 was the fact that this, at its heart, is a drivers championship, where the driver makes the difference. And on any given Sunday, it doesn't matter where you start the race, you have a chance to win.


Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Today in History: June 21, US Constitution becomes law
Advertisement In 1834, Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his mechanical reaper. In 1893, the first Ferris wheel opened to the public as part of the Chicago World's Fair. In 1942, an Imperial Japanese submarine fired shells at Fort Stevens on the Oregon coast, but caused little damage. In 1954, scientists of the American Cancer Society presented a study to a meeting of the American Medical Association in San Francisco, Calif., which found that men who regularly smoked cigarettes died, particularly from lung cancer, at a considerably higher rate than non-smokers. In 1964, civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered in Neshoba County, Miss. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later. (Forty-one years later, on this date in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman, was found guilty of manslaughter in their deaths; he was sentenced to 60 years in prison, where he died in January 2018.) Advertisement In 1982, a jury in Washington, D.C., found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the shootings of President Ronald Reagan, Press Secretary James Brady, Washington D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy. In 1989, a sharply divided Supreme Court ruled, in Texas v. Johnson, that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment. In 1997, the WNBA made its debut as the New York Liberty defeated the host Los Angeles Sparks 67-57. In 2004, the aircraft SpaceShipOne made the first privately funded human spaceflight. In 2010, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born US citizen, pleaded guilty to charges of plotting a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square. (Shahzad was later sentenced to life in prison.)